2025 Art Music Awards Finalists Revealed

The 2025 Art Music Awards are heading to Sydney next month, and today, the impressive finalists for this year's awards have been announced.

Finalists in eleven out of fifteen categories have been revealed, with the nominees recognised for their compositions, performances, excellence in music education, experimental practice, and activity in regional areas.

Winners of the four remaining awards—the Richard Gill Award for Distinguished Services to Australian Music and the three Luminary Awards, which are given to performers and organisations that have made sustained contributions to Australian music—will be announced next month.

The 2025 Art Music Awards will take place at 5:30 pm AEST on Thursday, 21 August, at the City Recital Hall in Sydney. The evening will be hosted by Vanessa Hughes, accompanied by guest presenters Hamed Sadeghi and Nardi Simpson, and music curator Sia Ahmad.

Titles including Charlotte, Electric Cathedral, A Library of Extraordinary Things, Labyrinth, A Mega Masquerade, Headwater, The Breath Becomes The Wind, and many others have been nominated for awards at this year’s event.

Check out the full list of finalists below and find out more about the Art Music Awards here.

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2025 Art Music Awards Finalists

Work of the Year: Choral

Title: All Flesh Is Fire
Composer: Anne Cawrse
Text: Kate Llewellyn
Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers

Title: Charlotte
Composer: Damian Barbeler
Text: Judith Nangala Crispin
Performer: Choir of King's College Cambridge

Title: Electric Cathedral
Composer: Kevin March
Text: Kylie Supski and ReVerse Butcher
Performer: The Consort of Melbourne

Title: Evening Star
Composer: Harry Sdraulig
Text: Edgar Allan Poe
Performer: Sydney Chamber Choir

Work of the Year: Dramatic

Title: A Library of Extraordinary Things
Composer: Fiona Hill
Performers: Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year Dancers, choreographer Miranda Wheen

Title: Gilgamesh
Composer: Jack Symonds
Text: Louis Garrick
Performers: Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring

Title: In Cosmic Utero
Composer: Aija Draguns
Text: Bianca Watkins
Performers: Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Aija Draguns, conductor

Title: Labyrinth
Composer: Evan J Lawson
Text: Daniel Szesiong Todd
Performer: Forest Collective

Work of the Year: Jazz

Title: Koi Kingdom
Composers: Cheryl Durongpisitkul, Stephen Hornby and Marcos Villalta
Performer: Koi Kingdom

Title: Sleep Cycle
Composer: Claire Cross
Performers: Claire Cross, Reuben Lewis, Merinda Dias-Jayasinha and Kyrie Anderson

Title: The Rhythms Of Autumn Leaves
Composer: Paul Grabowsky
Performer: Monash Art Ensemble
Publisher: Origin Music Publishing

Title: Tooni
Composers: Amy Dowd and Michael Power
Performers: Amy Dowd, Mick Power, Ben Yarram, Isadora Lauritz, Emma Volard and the Australian Art Orchestra

Work of the Year: Large Ensemble

Title: A Mega Masquerade
Composer: Nicholas Vines
Performer: Australian Youth Orchestra: Momentum Ensemble

Title: Hyphae
Composer: Olivia Davies
Performers: West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Dmitry Matvienko

Title: Nineteen Seventy-Three
Composer: Elizabeth Younan
Performer: Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Title: Ritornello
Composer: Jakub Jankowski
Performer: Australian Chamber Orchestra

Work of the Year: Chamber Music

Title: Headwater
Composer: Helen Svoboda
Performers: Helen Svoboda, Selma Savolainen, Jaques Emery and Tilman Robinson

Title: In Speak
Composer: Cathy Milliken
Performer: Arditti Quartet

Title: nyilamum song cycles
Composers: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope
Performers: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Australian String Quartet
Publisher: Wise Music

Title: War Sonatas
Composer: Michael Kieran Harvey
Poet & Narrator: Dr Arjun Von Caemmerer
Performer: Michael Kieran Harvey

Work of the Year: Electroacoustic/Sound Art

Title: Parasymbiosis
Composer: Gabriella Smart
Performers: Gabriella Smart, Kasper Toeplitz and Didier Casamitjana

Title: Tactus
Composer: Kate Milligan
Performer: Jonty Coy

Title: The Breath Becomes The Wind
Composer: Aviva Endean
Performers: Aviva Endean and Pat Telfer

Title: To Echoes and Lines
Composer: Sophie Rose
Performer: Judith Dodsworth

Performance of the Year: Jazz/Improvised Music

Performers: Max Alduca, Jacques Emery, Brett Hirst, Chloe Kim, Oscar Neyland, Helen Svoboda and Jonathan Zwartz
Title: Music For Six Double Bassists
Composer: Chloe Kim

Performers: Tom Avgenicos, Delay 45 and Ensemble Apex
Title: Ghosts Between Streams
Composer: Tom Avgenicos

Performers: Hamed Sadeghi and Eishan Ensemble
Title: By The Mountain
Composer: Hamed Sadeghi

Performer: Xani
Title: Endurance
Composer: Xani Kolac

Performance of the Year: Notated Composition

Performer: Adelaide Chamber Singers
Title: All Flesh Is Fire
Composer: Anne Cawrse
Text: Kate Llewellyn

Performers: Dr Lou Bennett AM and the Australian String Quartet
Title: nyilamum song cycles
Composers: Dr Lou Bennett AM and Paul Stanhope
Publisher: Wise Music

Performers: Sydney Chamber Opera, Opera Australia, Australian String Quartet and Ensemble Offspring
Title: Gilgamesh
Composer: Jack Symonds
Text: Louis Garrick

Performer: West Australian Opera
Title: Wundig wer Wilura
Composer: Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse
Publisher: Perfect Pitch Publishing

Award for Excellence in Music Education

Erica Rasmussen for Crashendo - Leading Note

Musica Viva Australia for Accessible Music Education Program

Speak Percussion for Bespoke Artists Program

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra for TSO Schools Runouts

Award for Excellence in Regional Area

Arafura Music Collective for Kaleidoscope: The Music of LGBTIQA+ Composers

Big hART for Tjaabi: Flood Country - 2024 Regional Tour

Ekstasis Ensemble for Limitless

Music in the Regions for providing high quality classical music to audiences across regional New South Wales

Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice

Aviva Endean for The Breath Becomes The Wind

Dale Gorfinkel for OutHear

Jasmin Wing-Yin Leung and Sally Ann McIntyre in collaboration with Mindy Meng Wang and Kaylie Melville for The Ninth Tone

The Music Box Project for Cut Paste Play 2024